Danger Money is one of the later novels of the much-honored mystery/romantic writer, Mignon G. Eberhart. She was born in 1899 and began her writing career in the 1930s. Her lead characters are always single women (or in a turbulent status between newly-married and widowed!). Although the books are set in upper-middle-class settings, just about anyone can identify with the characters and situations. Danger Money is no exception -- characters well developed, and, more importantly, likeable. The plots are clever and usually surprising in the final pages. Danger Money is definitely worth reading -- and even though this novel was written in the 1960s, the characters and plot are every bit as timely today as they were in the 60s! The action moves between New York City and the Manders' estate on Long Island -- and the plot development sustains the readers' interest. Ms. Eberhart is one of my favorite authors -- I've read every one of her books, and there are lots of them. If you like Danger Money, you'll love all of the others!

None of Eberhart's sleuths are detectives by trade. One, James Wickwire, is a senior vice president of a bank. As such, he believes that one of his primary responsibilities is to keep "his widows" from being victimized by purveyors of various get rich schemes which are designed to make the purveyor, not the widow, rich. These stories, circa 1930, present banking services as much more personal than they are in today's era of computers and ATM machines. In all the Wickwire stories, his widows are a rather naive lot who seem perfectly ready to risk their inheritances on whatever scam comes along. While Wickwire is watching out for his widows, someone or other invariably gets himself or herself murdered. Wickwire, shrewd old banker that he is, always seems to deduce the identity of the killer well before the plodding, but well meaning, police have any idea of the identity of the perpetrator.

Another of Eberhart's amateur sleuth is a murder mystery writer named Susan Dare. She appears in two or three of these stories. I don't think I would want to invite her to my country manor for the weekend because, when Susan's a guest, someone invariably gets murdered. But never fear, she, like Wickwire, always figures out the identity of the murderer, and usually before the weekend is over.

Ms. Eberhart writes in a rather genteel manner as typified by her description of banker Wickwire's thoughts when admiring an attractive woman. "Eloise was almost beautiful, with creamy, magnolia smooth skin, soft red mouth, and a rather luxuriant figure." That's it. That's all there is. It's interesting to note just how much can be conveyed in a subtly understated manner. Mignon Eberhart is good at it,

There are other stories and other amateur crime solvers in the book. All are "just everyday folks" going about their business while solving a murder or two. The book is dated, no computers, no DNA testing, and no high speed chases, just good analytic minds. I think that it's a better book for its reliance on the human mind as opposed to high-tech analytic methoods.

WotR was not a great book, but it was a good one. The first 3 quarters moved quickly, but the story broke down when the killer was slllooowwwlllyyy revealed. Plus, it was not who I thought it would be.